KAUFMANN/GRATKOWSKI/de JOODE TRIO - oblengths
Leo Records CD LR 748
Achim Kaufmann, piano; Frank Gratkowski, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet; Wilbert de Joode, double bass
Recorded live at The Loft, Köln, Germany, January 30th 2014
Kaufmann was captivated by jazz and improvisation in his teens, later taking up music studies in Köln and taking on master classes with musicians such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve Coleman, Dave Holland and Steve Lacy. Gratkowski started saxophone at 16 and also took up studies at the Köln Conservatory of Music. Odd-man-out de Joode, self-taught bass player, has long been fascinated by improvisation within the structures of jazz and has especially applied himself to researching both bass bowing and plucking techniques.
The music in oblengths reverberates between harmony and discord in a fine balance which is echoed in the equilibrium achieved between the grain of the music and its rhythms. Kaufmann’s piano exhibits exuberant, resounding chords amidst precise precipitations of sound which are the perfect setting for de Joode’s fluid bass lines. Such liquidity seems commonplace in today’s jazz and linked with progressive techniques from the avant-garde lends access to many kinds of manifestation through personal, discrete improvisation.
Frank Gratkowski has moulded a succession of compelling liaisons with fellow musicians and this trio is no exception. He seems to have a deep-rooted ability to meld with them into a fusion of ingenuity which is the very definition of improvisation. There is a resonance of this in de Joode’s bass playing: clearly at ease here he delivers fascinating themes for both sax and piano to investigate and all three reveal the calibre of their creative skills, adroitly hunting, chasing something fresh, something altered. This trio moulds its co-operative, musical inventiveness with extraordinary deftness.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Leo Records CD LR 748
Achim Kaufmann, piano; Frank Gratkowski, alto saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet; Wilbert de Joode, double bass
Recorded live at The Loft, Köln, Germany, January 30th 2014
Kaufmann was captivated by jazz and improvisation in his teens, later taking up music studies in Köln and taking on master classes with musicians such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve Coleman, Dave Holland and Steve Lacy. Gratkowski started saxophone at 16 and also took up studies at the Köln Conservatory of Music. Odd-man-out de Joode, self-taught bass player, has long been fascinated by improvisation within the structures of jazz and has especially applied himself to researching both bass bowing and plucking techniques.
The music in oblengths reverberates between harmony and discord in a fine balance which is echoed in the equilibrium achieved between the grain of the music and its rhythms. Kaufmann’s piano exhibits exuberant, resounding chords amidst precise precipitations of sound which are the perfect setting for de Joode’s fluid bass lines. Such liquidity seems commonplace in today’s jazz and linked with progressive techniques from the avant-garde lends access to many kinds of manifestation through personal, discrete improvisation.
Frank Gratkowski has moulded a succession of compelling liaisons with fellow musicians and this trio is no exception. He seems to have a deep-rooted ability to meld with them into a fusion of ingenuity which is the very definition of improvisation. There is a resonance of this in de Joode’s bass playing: clearly at ease here he delivers fascinating themes for both sax and piano to investigate and all three reveal the calibre of their creative skills, adroitly hunting, chasing something fresh, something altered. This trio moulds its co-operative, musical inventiveness with extraordinary deftness.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
